Sunday, January 15, 2017

Ending the Christmas Season and Moving On

I finally had some progress this week. I hope I can keep the ball rolling. I think now that the holidays are finally officially over (we had our last Christmas get together just this past Friday), I can get my focus back on these goals.

Green highlights are ones which met the quota for the week, yellow highlights were at least worked on and red were a fail.

1)        Finish writing my current novel, “The Big House”.  I wrote 968 words, but unfortunately I won’t get back at it for another week or two. (See #2)
2)        Have “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” published. I finally got the first round of edits back from the editor. Yeah! I’ve been playing around with how I want to do my own track changes, so have only gotten through chapter 3. I plan on barreling into it later today and getting it done this week.
3)        Continue posting to my other blog, “TheDino Chronicles” three times a week. Nope, only posted new posts twice this week.    
4)        Submit three pieces to various places for publication. Nothing, but hope to submit one poem this week and have another poem in mind. (Exactly the same as last week. Argh.)
5)        Schedule a book signing. Nope, nothing. But now that I am back on track with my publisher, I am going to start working on this.
6)        Book a presentation either on my books or my trip to Kenya. Nope, same reason as #5. (Do I know why I put these as separate goals? They are so much the same.)
7)        Finalize return trip to Kenya with our nonprofit Tumaini Volunteers.  Did some stuff. I posted on all our social media asking for donations and also have been working with my daughter on looking at flights. Still also working on those donation letters.  
8)        Get my body in better shape than it is now. I worked out three mornings and two evenings. I’ve had something going on with my ankle, so didn’t want to overdo it. I ran out of turmeric, so bought another bottle of that yesterday along with some more glucosamine, which I’ve been out of for many months. I thought I would try it again. I gotta get this pain under control.

Looking at the week ahead, I should be able to get off work from the day job early on Monday (early for me is 5:00pm), but have to go in for training on Friday (which is normally my day off). I ordered new glasses, so I have to find the time to go pick them up. Also, I would like to book our flights to Kenya next weekend, so should get together with my daughter to do that. I also have a meeting at church on Tuesday night. Anything else on my schedule that is going to slow me down this week? I don’t see anything, but things do have a way of popping up. 


What things get in your way that slows down your progress? Are you able to plow through them or do they completely stall you? 
 My son - "Christmas is all done."
My daughter - "Oh, really?"

8 comments:

  1. I always forget what a swirl of activity the end-of-the-year brings. Good to see your progress with editing, writing, and planning. Lots more green here. Go ahead and combine #5 and #6. You'll feel better!

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    1. We just took the tree down, so we are definitely making progress. Also, thanks for the go ahead on those two goals. We all can always use validation. :)

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  2. I LOVE the demonstrations by your kids - they could almost be mine some years in the future.

    As for things getting in my way - that's one major reason I have such a variety of goals. For instance, last week's busyness, which will taper off once I get home from picking up my son later this evening - meant that I didn't really do much on my revision class, which needs more focused effort. But I did a lot of smaller, less attention-grabbing goals, and spent some time watching the Star Trek episodes on my list, because I've seen them all more than once, and they were a nice way to relax between outings.

    This week is much calmer, and I expect to dive into the class, with other things taking more of a backseat to that goal.

    I love having the adaptability to work with what's going on, rather than struggling upstream when life's carrying me down.

    You've had a good week. Hooray for finally getting those edits back, and being able to advance several goals because of that. And I wish you low fares when booking your trip!

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    1. That's why I think it is good to have a variety of goals - big ones and little ones - so that some sort of progress is always made. Or that's the theory. Doesn't always work in my case.

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  3. Looks like you had a pretty good week. Hope this week goes well for you.

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    1. Thanks, Fallon, I'm ready to continue forward progress.

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  4. Nice progress this week! I'm glad you finally heard back from your editor. That has to be a big relief there. :)

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    1. Yup, big relief. A quick scan of the manuscript doesn't show too many problems, so my end of the process should go pretty quick.

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